II. Demographics

Age

Hispanic women are younger than are other women in the United States. The median age of Hispanic women is 41, compared with 47 for non-Hispanic women.

Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to be under the age of 35. Whereas 42% of Hispanic women are ages 18 to 34, only 28% of non-Hispanic women are.

Some 19% of non-Hispanic women are ages 65 or older, while just 10% of Hispanic women are in this age group.

Immigrant Hispanic women are older than native-born Hispanic women. While the median age of Hispanic immigrant women is 42, the median age of native-born Hispanic women is 39.

Native-born Hispanic women are nearly twice as likely as immigrant Hispanic women to be 24 or younger; 22% of the native born are ages 18 to 24 compared with 12% of immigrant women.

Country of Birth

Most immigrant Hispanic women in the U.S. were born in Mexico.

Six-in-ten (60%) immigrant Hispanic women are from Mexico.

Women from Central America comprise the second largest group of Hispanic immigrants. Nearly 14% of immigrant Hispanic women are from Central America. Almost haof Hispanic immigrant women fromCentral America are from El Salvador.

Caribbean countries contribute about the same number of immigrant Hispanic women as all of South America. Nearly all of the 13% of immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean were born in Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Almost half of the 12% of women from South America are Colombian.

Year of Entry

The majority of immigrant Hispanic women have arrived since 1990.

One-fifth (20%) of immigrant Hispanic women arrived in the U.S. before 1980.

One-third of (33%) of Hispanic immigrant women arrived between 1990 and 1999.

Nearly equal proportions of immigrant Hispanic women arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s (23%) and in the last eight years (25%).

Citizenship

Immigrant Hispanic women, especially those from Mexico, are less likely than immigrant women from other parts of the world to be naturalized citizens.

Immigrant Hispanic women are much less likely than non-Hispanic immigrants to be naturalized citizens. Whereas more than half (55%) of non-Hispanic immigrant women are naturalized citizens, less than one-third (31%) of immigrant Hispanic women are.

Naturalization rates for Hispanic women differ by country of origin. Mexican women are the least likely to be naturalized citizens—only 24% are. Central and South American women are more likely than Mexican women to be naturalized citizens, 32% and 42% respectively. Hispanic women from the Caribbean are the most likely—55% are naturalized.

Language

The majority (55%) of Hispanic women in the U.S. speak only English in the home or report speaking English very well.

English-speaking ability varies greatly by nativity. While nearly nine-in-ten (86%) native-born Hispanic women speak English only in the home or report speaking English very well, more than seven-in-ten (73%) immigrant Hispanic women report speaking English less than very well.

Marital Status

Foreign-born Hispanic women are more likely than native-born Hispanic and non-Hispanic women to be married.

The marital status of Hispanic women is similar to that of non-Hispanic women. Equal shares of Hispanic and non-Hispanic women are married (54%).

Foreign-born Hispanic women are much more likely to be married than are native-born Hispanic women, 63% versus 44% for the native born. Some, but not all, of this difference can be explained by the fact that native-born Hispanic women are younger than immigrant Hispanic women. While 68% of native-born Hispanic women ages 18-29 have never been married, 59% of immigrant Hispanic women in this age range are married or divorced or separated.

The fertility rate of Hispanic women is considerably higher than that of non-Hispanic women. Immigrant Hispanic women have higher fertility rates than native-born Hispanic women.

Hispanic women are more likely to give birth than their non-Hispanic counterparts. In 2005-2006, Hispanic women had 84 births per 1,000 women compared with 63 births per 1,000 non-Hispanic women.

Among Hispanic women, immigrants are more likely to give birth than their native-born counterparts. Immigrant Hispanic women had 96 births per 1,000 women while native-born Hispanic women had 73 births per 1,000 women.

Immigrant Hispanic women from Mexico are most likely among all immigrant Hispanic women to give birth; their fertility rate was 106 births per 1,000 women.

Immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean are less likely to give birth than non-Hispanic women. Their fertility rate was 60 births per 1,000 women versus 63 births per 1,000 non-Hispanic women.

Hispanic women who gave birth in the last year were more likely to be unmarried than their non-Hispanic counterparts. While 42% of Hispanic women who gave birth were unmarried, only 34% of non-Hispanic mothers were unmarried.

Some 35% of immigrant Hispanic women who gave birth were unmarried, nearly identical to the share (34%) of non-Hispanic women who gave birth and were unmarried.

Native-born Hispanic women who gave birth were more likely than immigrant Hispanic women to be unmarried. Half (50%) of all births to native-born Hispanic women in the previous year were to single mothers compared with 35% of immigrant Hispanic women.

While immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean had the lowest fertility rates (60 births per 1,000 women), they were also the most likely among immigrant Hispanic women to be single mothers. Nearly half (47%) of immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean who gave birth were unmarried.

Education

Foreign-born Hispanic women are much less likely than native-born Hispanic women to have a high school diploma or a college education.

Hispanic women are less educated than non-Hispanic women. Some 36% have less than a high school education, compared with 10% of non-Hispanic women.

Immigrant Hispanic women are more likely than native born Hispanic women to have less than a high school education. Nearly half (49%) of all Hispanic women immigrants have not completed high school, compared with 22% of the native born.

In contrast, native-born Hispanic women are nearly twice as likely as immigrant Hispanic women to have some college education. While 46% of native-born Hispanic women have at least some college education, only 24% of immigrant Hispanic women do.

Foreign-born Hispanic women from South America have the highest levels of education; half (50%) have attended college. They are more than twice as likely as immigrant women from Central America, and more than three times as likely as immigrant women from Mexico, to have at least some college education.

Health Insurance Coverage

Hispanic women, especially immigrant Hispanic women, are much less likely to have health insurance than non-Hispanic women.

Hispanic women are nearly three times as likely as non-Hispanic women to be uninsured, 36% versus 13%.

Both native-born Hispanic women and immigrant Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to lack health insurance. While only 13% of non-Hispanic women are uninsured, almost half (47%) of immigrant Hispanic women and a quarter (25%) of native-born Hispanic women lack health insurance.

The fertility rate is defined as the number of women ages 15 to 44 per 1,000 women that age who reported having a child in the 12-month period prior to the survey. These data are from the 2006 American Community Survey, which was conducted from January through December 2006. ↩

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